Locke used to work for a box company…voilà! Look, there’s your dad in a box!

John’s dad, Anthony Cooper, is the man from Tallahassee. Kate was buying a bus ticket to Tallahassee in a Season 1 flashback. Sawyer mentioned catching a disease in Tallahassee in a Season 2 flashback. Other Florida connections: Juliet used to live with her sister in Miami, and Kate lived with her cop husband in Miami too.

I think John’s dad is the real Sawyer, the con man that Island Sawyer (James Ford) has been chasing his whole life, the one who killed Ford’s parents. So it will be very interesting if Island Sawyer comes face to face with him…

When Peter Talbot came to Locke asking why he gave his kidney to his father, Talbot said Locke’s dad name was Adam Seward.

Before the Swan Hatch imploded a few weeks ago (in Lost time), the Others had contact with the outside world and the submarine was able to travel to and fro. I believe Ben brought Locke’s dad to the island after Michael helped him escape from the Swan. He knows everything about Locke, is mesmerized by the fact that Locke was healed by the island when he himself was not, etc. Ben knew firsthand how easy it was to manipulate Locke, and so he knew to bring Locke’s dad to the island to use as a pawn in his overall game plan.

Richard Alpert, the guy who tried to recruit Juliet back in Portland, was the guy who untied Locke and brought him to see his dad last night. Is he Ben’s henchman? Did he deliver Locke’s dad to the island? Did they actually try to recruit or lure Locke’s dad to the island, or was he more than willing to go since he was on the run from the police?

Then again…Locke’s dad is a con man. For all we know, he is working in cahoots with Ben and the Others. He may not have been taken against his will; they’re just making it look that way to lure Locke into Ben’s trap.

Then again…are we being duped? Is that really Locke’s dad in that box? Could it be that the smoke monster has once again manifested itself into the shape of someone from Locke’s past (like Eko’s black smoke, Kate’s horse, Jack’s dad, Hurley’s friend Dave and Sayid’s cat)?

If it really is Locke’s dad, who’s to say who else the Others brought to the island to torment the survivors…Jack’s ex-wife, Charlie’s brother, Sayid’s Nadia, Sun’s dad, Claire’s ex-boyfriend/baby daddy, etc.

Why was Locke dry when he entered the submarine but wet when he emerged from it on the dock?

Locke’s dad was drinking the same rare brand of MacCutcheon Whiskey that Mr. Widmore was drinking in his office while talking to Desmond. Which, of course, means that the two are somehow connected.

Why were Jack and Juliet leaving the island on the submarine, when Michael and Walt were set free on a boat? We saw a few episodes ago that the Others still have Desmond’s sailboat and also a large boat that Jack and Juliet were taking from the Hydra Hatch island back to their own. Was Ben planning to send them to whatever Twilight Zone locale that Michael and Walt are stuck in now?

I thought all communications, including sonar, were destroyed when Locke blew up the Flame Hatch. Why would the submarine still be able to operate? Ben must have known that it wasn’t operable…I’m sure had Locke not shown up, Ben would have sent Jack and Juliet to the sub and pretended to be surprised to find out that it couldn’t leave. But Juliet should have also known. I love that we have no idea whose side she’s really on.

Why is it that the security system that killed Mikhail last week isn’t in place near the water? It seems that anyone can access the dock, boats and submarine. Why wouldn’t the Others or Dharma protect their only methods of leaving the island? The map that Sayid took from Mikhail seems to show that there isn’t a security perimeter anywhere except around the barracks, a.k.a. Other Village.

I still have no idea what Ben told Kate that first morning on the beach over breakfast or if this is still part of the two very difficult weeks he referred to, but perhaps her attempted rescue of Jack was part of it.

Is Ben really Alex’s dad, or did he take her as an infant from Rousseau, just as the Others have taken children? Was Ben really born on the island, or is he really Rousseau’s husband and they’re both original Dharma folks? The Others are clearly aware that Rousseau is still alive/around, because the man guarding Sayid hit him when he started to talk to Alex about her mom.

In the last few episodes, they’ve been purposefully showing us meat in Others’ refrigerators…the slabs of unknown animal in Mikhail’s and the chicken in Ben’s. Why?

Jack told Kate that they were watching him and we saw the camera in the piano room. Tom motioned to Jack that they were listening in the game room when he went to see Kate. Is Sheriff Isabel the one monitoring all of this? And does it seem like Tom is on Jack’s side all of a sudden? Perhaps he has a crush on the doc…

So now we’ve seen two men get pushed out of windows: the guy Sun was having an affair with (who died), and now Locke (who didn’t die).

And this is a stretch, but worth a try…I’m not sure why he’d be in Florida, but in Hurley’s very first flashback in Season 1, when he was at his accountant’s office, his accountant was trying to convince him that ‘the numbers’ weren’t a curse, and at that very moment a body flew down past their window outside. Could it have been Locke?!

Is it just me, or was it strange to see Locke in the hospital after his accident without so much as a back brace on or in traction? If he broke his back, would they really be picking him up and putting him in the wheelchair like that?

I love the role reversals of power in this episode: Ben in a wheelchair and Locke standing, and Kate as a prisoner being interrogated by Jack.

NEXT WEEK (SPOILER ALERT)If I had to guess, I think Sun will find out that Charlie abducted her last season, and Jin will kill Charlie. OR…since Charlie knows he’s going to die anyway (thanks to Desmond’s accurate premonitions), he might confess to Sun. Maybe she kills him.

The episode will be a Nikki and Paulo flashback. You might be saying to yourself, ‘who?’ Exactly. They are the two annoying new characters who’ve apparently been living on the beach among our Losties but have only made random appearances this season with awkward dialogue. The producers swear that they’re important to the overall story, and that next week’s episode will be a “game changer.”

AND, we might finally get to see the underwater hatch that I’m convinced is attached to that large cord Sayid found on the beach in Season 1. I have a feeling we’re about to be introduced to an entire new colony of island folk; the subterranean/underwater Others. Is that where the Hostiles live, or where all of the kidnapped Tail Section survivors and children are being kept?

Now, aren’t you glad you haven’t given up on Lost?! It just keeps getting better. If you’re reading this, you’re one of the faithful. I appreciate it. Thanks for reading.